Luhansk separatists seize the state buildings

(QHA) -

Several thousand pro-Russian demonstrators in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk have seized the regional administration building, the prosecutor's office, the main police station, and the local television center, RFE/RL reports.

The regional administration building was the first to fall to protesters on April 29 and afterward a group of several hundred people went to the prosecutor's building and seized it also.

Pro-Russian demonstrators then took over the local television center and the police station.

There were reports of gunfire at the police station.

Acting Ukrainian President Oleksander Turchynov demanded the dismissal of the Luhansk and Donetsk police commanders.

Turchynov said in a statement that the local police commanders in those two cities had "shown inaction, powerlessness, and in some cases criminal treachery."

There were reports the regional police chief in Luhansk has resigned, yielding to the demands of protesters outside the police station.